Alex could see that Rose’s friend was getting worked up and he tried to soothe her to avoid any attention being drawn to their predicament. “Perhaps we are getting worried over nothing, but I will look into the matter. Can you remember which direction they went?”
He was relieved as Elizabeth pulled her fraying wits back together and looked out from the alcove. Pointing toward the orchestra she said, “I was over there, facing toward the dance floor, with my back toward the musicians. Rose was almost directly across from me. When they turned away I could see their backs, so they went in the direction of the retiring rooms, but I already looked there.”
“Very good, thank you. That was an excellently detailed description. I am going to go and do some discreet investigating of my own. Could you find Lord Dunbar and tell him what you have just told me?”
Elizabeth appeared to be grateful to receive an assignment and without another word hurried away to do as he had asked. Alex stood looking around, glad for his height as he was able to get a better idea of what was around. Seeing a few doors and passageways at the back of the ballroom in the direction Elizabeth had indicated, he set off at once. Passing the wall of windows on his way by, Alex glanced toward them, but there was nothing he could see except the reflection of the dancing crowds.
It was so very difficult to hurry in a crowded ballroom, especially when one was a duke. Alex tried to keep a pleasant expression on his face and made every attempt to avoid being drawn into any conversation as he made his way through. With a smile and a nod to whoever hailed him, he finally reached his destination. The first door he reached was locked. He hoped Broderick and Rose had had as much difficulty getting through the crowds as he had, he thought distractedly, or else they will have an even greater lead on me.
Next to the locked door there was a hallway that was not lit welcomingly like the rest of the space opened up to the Rotherhams’ guests. Alex set off down that passage, hoping he was not chasing a dead end. There were a couple of doors off this passage, but his investigation proved they were merely closets and storage areas, not large enough to be containing a missing lady and a wayward knight.
Alex finally reached a door at the end, he surmised from the turns he had taken that it might lead outside. It was not locked. Opening the door, he stepped out into the cool night, angry and terrified to see a carriage in the distance as it pulled out onto the street. Even if it contained his Rose, there was nothing he could do to stop it from this distance. With disgust, he turned back to the doorway and nearly collided with Wesley.
Cursing in his frustration, Alex gritted his teeth to stem the flow of his vitriol. He was glad to see the viscount and it was not his fault they were too late to save the lady.
“Thank you for coming, Dunbar. Unfortunately, I think we just missed her. If Broderick has taken her, they just drove away in that carriage.”
“Are you sure? Did you see her?”
Alex had not seen Elizabeth and was surprised to see her stepping out from behind Wesley.
Alex’s look of disbelief directed at the viscount merely produced a sheepish shrug. “She would not be denied the opportunity of looking for her missing friend. I did not wish to waste my time arguing with her when I could be helping you with the search.”
“I do not think a search will produce anything but causing a commotion. If at all possible, we shall have to try to retrieve Rose without anyone amongst the ton finding out that she has gone missing. I am quite certain they have left the premises, so we shall have to formulate a plan to figure out where he might have taken her. And why.”
Alex looked at Lady Elizabeth, feeling sorry for his next words. “I am so sorry to have to tell you this, my lady, but you will not be able to accompany us. You will have the difficult task of getting through the rest of your night pretending as though nothing is amiss. I will try my best to keep you informed as soon as we know anything, but it most likely will not be before tomorrow. Do you think you can manage that? We might need to call on you soon in order to preserve Rose’s reputation.”
“I will keep myself in readiness, Your Grace. Do not trouble yourself about me. I am not in any danger, except that of boredom. I do believe I shall soon find my mother and plead a headache, as there is no way I will be able to enjoy the rest of the ball. But you two hurry along and do whatever needs to be done.”
Alex was about to dismiss her from his mind as he had so many things to do, but then Elizabeth continued with another thought. “Your Grace, did I do the right thing in telling you instead of her parents? Do you not think we should tell them? Now that you are chasing after her, should I find Lady Smythe and let her know what is going on?”
Alex hesitated. He knew Rose had planned on telling her father about Sir Broderick, but he was unsure if she had managed to keep his name out of the situation. The fact that she had been at the ball this evening proved she had not been banished as she had feared. But did that also mean she had not had a chance to tell her father anything?
“Clearly Lady Smythe has to be told something, or else she will cause a scene when she cannot find her daughter,” Wesley pointed out reasonably.
Alex laughed. “Lady Smythe does not cause scenes. It is her abiding motto. But you are quite correct. She must be told something. I would prefer to deal with Lord Smythe myself. Do either of you know if he is here this evening?”
“I did not see him, Your Grace,” Elizabeth replied, while Wesley merely shrugged and shook his head.
“All right. I will collect my servants and try to glean as much information as possible. The good news is I had already set someone to the task of watching Broderick, so hopefully we will know something very soon. I will go and try to speak to Lord Smythe, if you two could try to get Lady Smythe out of here without her raising a hue and a cry over her daughter.”
Wesley cast a sceptical glance at his friend. “Are you quite certain you are up to the task of facing Lord Smythe on your own?”
“There is very little other choice, my friend, but thank you for your concern.” Alex grinned at the viscount. “I actually am of the opinion that the two of you have the harder task. At least in the privacy of his own home the baron can react however he sees fit.”
“Thank you, Your Grace, for your help in this matter. I will speak with Lady Smythe, and then perhaps Lord Dunbar can escort her home. I will collect my own mama and wait at our home for any news. I dearly wish that I could be helping in some way.”
Before he left, Alex squeezed the young woman’s hand comfortingly. “Do not mistake the matter, my lady, you have been a great deal of help. If not for you, we would not even realize that anything was amiss until it was much later. Now we might be able to get this all straightened out before daybreak.”
Chapter Eighteen
Rose still had her teeth clenched together to control the chatter they wished to make. She could see very little through the carriage’s dirty windows. Being unfamiliar with the part of town they were driving through anyway, she would not have been able to figure out where they were, even if she could see well. She tried again to reason with her captor.
“Where are you taking me, my lord?”
“Somewhere where you won’t be causing me any more grief,” came the flat reply.
“Are you planning on killing me?” she asked with as firm a voice as she could muster.
“You really aren’t the usual sort of Miss, are you?” Broderick stated, with a glimmer of respect showing in his tone. “Any young lady I’ve ever had the misfortune of dealing with would be screaming blue murder by this point, or else prostrate in a dead faint.”
“Have you had much experience in abducting young ladies in the past, my lord?” Rose asked tartly.
This brought an amused twist to his lips. “Not overmuch experience, Miss, but I do find your sort to usually be much less in control of their wits than you.”
Broderick finally looked straight at her, which caused a sense of foreboding to descend upon Rose. She tried
valiantly to ignore it.
“How did you find out about my plans for the Duke of Wrentham?” he asked almost pleasantly.
She didn’t see any point in avoiding the truth. “I overheard you speaking to Lord Austen at the Countess of Yorkleigh’s musicale. It was during the intermission. The two of you were sitting a couple of rows behind me. You obviously did not notice me, or else you thought I was too far away to hear you. In fact, I did not hear most of what you were saying as I was distracted by watching everyone milling about, but when you mentioned Wrentham’s name my ears perked up.”
“And so then you had to run out and tell him about it, didn’t you?” Broderick sneered.
Rose shrugged, refusing to be cowed by the likes of him. “It seemed like the best course of action at the time.”
“What did you hope to gain by telling His Grace?”
“I hoped to save him from your clutches,” Rose brazenly replied.
“But instead it is you who is in my clutches,” Broderick taunted.
Again Rose shrugged, although this time it was a bit forced. “I am most certain my father will save me.”
“Your father will not even know of your disappearance for a few more hours yet, and then when he does, there will be the note you are going to write to explain it all away.”
“What do you hope to gain by all of this?” Rose inquired, ignoring his reference to any note writing. At the back of her mind, she was busily trying to compose a note that would send a message to her father without alerting Broderick to her plans.
“I guess there’s no harm in telling you. If I can keep your father distracted and you out of the way, I plan to get the Prince to sign over to me control of the lands he is about to regain during the negotiations in Paris.”
“But why would he sign them over to you? Are you even acquainted with His Majesty?” Rose was puzzled over the knight’s ambitions.
“Of course I am acquainted with Prinny. And he is going to sign them over to me because I have been working studiously at convincing him that I would be the best man for the job. I would have had the duke’s influence to seal the deal if not for your interference, but if your father isn’t around to sway him otherwise, I should still be able to make it all come about.”
“So, then you are going to kill me, aren’t you?” Rose concluded.
“What makes you say that?”
Rose could see that her outward calm was disconcerting to her captor. It gave her a strange sense of satisfaction, but she could not keep the tremble completely from her chin as she answered the creepy man. “I cannot imagine you wish to go to the trouble of keeping me locked up for the rest of my days, but if you let me go you cannot be certain that I will not broadcast your dastardly deeds to everyone who will listen.”
Broderick looked steadily at his captive, surprise flickering in his wicked eyes. “You don’t seem overly troubled by the prospect.”
“I refuse to entertain you with my hand wringing,” she replied frostily, as she also thought to herself, and I refuse to beg you to do otherwise. Turning her head toward the window, Rose set herself to the task of ignoring the despicable man. She wished fervently that she could tell where they were going.
As the carriage began to slow, she was unsure if she was happy or not that her wish was about to be granted. Not that she had any idea where they were, but she was about to find out what type of destination they had been bound for. She had lost track of time so she was unsure how far they had travelled, but as she took a deep breath the scent of brackish water led her to believe they were near the river.
“Are you taking me out of the country?” she gasped with fear.
Broderick’s diabolically amused grin did not reassure Rose, but he finally responded directly to her question. “I have no current plans of taking you, or having you taken, out of the country. I am quite sure you can be convinced to behave properly so that we shan’t have to go to such extremes as that, nor of killing you as you previously suggested. I have a lovely little place near here that will do quite nicely for keeping you out of the way for the time being.”
As the carriage came to a stop, Rose gathered her wits thinking she might be able to make a break for it somehow. She had no idea of where she was nor of how she could find her way home, but for a moment she thought anything would be preferable to being in Broderick’s clutches.
Her intentions must have been written upon her features, as evidenced by the knight’s next words. “Do not do anything so foolish as to try to get away, my dear. I know you do not relish my company, but I can assure you that you will be far safer with me than you will be wandering about the stews on your own at this time of the night. Or at any time, for that matter. This neighbourhood is not accustomed to the presence of one such as you, and I will not vouch for your safety if you venture abroad.”
Rose gulped down the knot of fear his words had brought to her throat. She was well aware that he was trying to terrify her, but she also knew quite well there was truth in his words. Although she was supposed to be a sheltered Society debutante, as a diplomat’s daughter she was privy to some of the tales of the darker sides of city life. She was not safe whichever way she turned. Resolving to do her best to stay alive and whole until morning, when it would be safer to endeavour to escape, she forced herself to look steadily at her captor.
“So what now, my lord?”
Broderick stared back at her coldly, clearly displeased with her lack of obvious fear. Rose remembered Lady Yorkleigh’s veiled warnings about the knight’s rumoured entertainments and felt a shiver of dread drift down her spine. Valiantly suppressing her fears, Rose lifted her chin proudly and returned Broderick’s cold stare.
“Now, Miss Smythe, you are going to get down from this carriage, slow and steady like, and then you are going to follow my friend, Squint, into that building just yonder. You aren’t going to do anything so foolish as to try to run, and you certainly aren’t going to draw any attention to the presence of such a pretty young thing being in the vicinity by screaming.”
Rose could feel her blood turn to ice in her veins at her words, but she did not give in to the fear coursing through her. As the door opened she could see a henchman with a disfiguring scar next to his eye, unsurprised that the despicable knight would refer to the disfigurement in the man’s nickname. Ignoring his offered hand, Rose gathered her skirts and stepped delicately down. She was followed by Broderick’s voice.
“I will be right behind you, Miss, and will not hesitate to give chase or use force if you do not behave yourself.”
Rose kept her chin firm and steadily ignored the hateful man, hurrying to follow Squint through the gloom of the dockyards to a dilapidated building. Fearing it might fall down around her, Rose kept darting her eyes around looking for different ways to escape. It was little more than an overgrown shed, from what she could see in the dim light cast by the shuttered lantern the knight’s partner was carrying. Rose was certain she would be able to break free so long as she was left alone come daylight. She comforted herself with that thought as Broderick drew near.
Grabbing her arm and tugging her to a chair near the corner of the room, Sir Broderick pushed her down and pulled her arms behind to tie them. Rose began to struggle in fear at being thus confined. He struck her with a stunning blow.
Blinking the black spots from her eyes, Rose managed to retain her consciousness, but had not been able to contain the squeal of pain the back of his hand had inflicted upon her cheekbone. As her vision cleared she could see him grinning at her. Rose scowled. “You are despicable. Do you really think to get away with this?” she demanded, not bothering with polite address.
“I absolutely do. Now that you are all trussed up, I can be on my way. See that you behave yourself or Squint here will be happy to crack you for your troubles.”
Rose eyed them both with distaste as she pulled on the ropes Broderick had deftly tightened around her wrists while she had been briefly stunned by his blow. She struggl
ed against the despair rising in her chest at the thought that her own rescue depended upon her wits and resources.
The two men walked away, leaving her in the dark. Rose strained against the ropes at the same time as she frantically listened to the silence, wondering if anyone would return to watch over her or what might be hiding in the dark near her. She did not think she would be able to tolerate with equanimity the presence of any rodents at the moment. Hopefully they were otherwise occupied, she thought, nearing hysteria.
Before long, she was regretting her wish for light as Squint returned with his lantern and his eerie presence. She had not yet heard him speak. Rose wondered if she should plead with him for her release, calculating how much she should offer to pay him for safely returning her to her home. Her frantic thoughts were soon put to an end as her rough looking captor spoke for the first time.
“Don’t be bothering to have yerself any ideas, Miss, I ain’t listening to you. Jest sit yourself in your chair and wait until his lordship comes back and tells us what we’re doing next.”
Rose did not bother offering a reply, sitting in stony silence. She hoped the night would pass quickly.
∞∞∞
Alex stood on the street at the bottom of the stairs that led to the Smythe residence. It was taking him an inordinate amount of time to gather his gumption to go and knock on the door. He did not even know for sure if Lord Smythe was at home, but the duke was dreading the upcoming conversation. Chastising himself for being such a lily-livered ninny, he forced himself to climb the stairs and knock on the door.
The well-trained butler did not reveal his shock at discovering the Duke of Wrentham on the doorstep, merely ushering him into the receiving room with the promise of returning shortly with the information if milord was at home to company.
The Duke Conspiracy: A Sweet Regency Romance Adventure (Mayfair Mayhem Book 1) Page 25